YouTube's Sensei Seth continually expands his love and knowledge of karate and other martial arts in videos which see him take on different fighting styles, from Muay Thai to the fictitious 'Eagle Fang' karate shown in Netflix's Cobra Kai. In a new video, Seth sets himself the challenge of learning to fight like the Hollywood martial arts legend Bruce Lee—in just seven days.
"The perception that we have of him now is so one side or the other," he says. "Either everything he said was pure gold, or people really disliked the idea of him being the greatest martial artist ever."
Seth turns to Lee's book, The Tao of Jeet Kune Do, which encapsulates his approach to martial arts, and starts out by attempting to master the defensive stances which are illustrated in detail in the text. "Bruce Lee was known to be a fast, explosive person," he says. "This inevitably came from having a loaded back leg that was able to spring into action at any moment."
But he soon realises that he won't be able to learn everything he wants from simply reading a book. "It turns that The Tao of Jeet Kune Do barely scratches the surfaces moves-wise, techniques-wise," he says. And so he recruits the help of martial artist Ed Stahl to help him get to grips with Lee's core principles of movement.
From there, Seth works on his striking technique, practicing different kinds of kicks and punches which focus on sensitive areas. "I've never been a big fan of finger jabs... Like, the head is made of very hard stuff and the eyes are a very small target," he says. "It's such a small target, I'd much rather rely on big things hitting bigger things."
As well as jabbing your opponent in the eyes, The Tao of Jeet Kune Do also has a section on kicking them while they're down (literally), but Seth skips this lesson. Then, when his seven days of training are over, he tests everything he has learned in a sparring session.
"These first few rounds I was struggling," says Seth. "I could kind of get the stance, and I could get some of the single attacks, but my right leg was ripe for the kicking... I found a little success with the step behind side kick."
"I feel like I was able to utilise a lot of what was in this book," he concludes. "With that being said, I don't think these were my best sparring rounds. In fact, I don't think they were my best sparring rounds by a lot. However, at the end of the sparring class, I wasn't super worried about how good I was doing, what I was able to make work, I just was. Sparring is useful in that way, in general. You don't have to win or lose in sparring to be getting better."
